The number and complexity of appliances and equipment being provisioned at residential and business locations is growing at an unprecedented rate. Furthermore, this equipment typically includes microprocessors and other programmable logic that allow interoperation and communication with other appliances as well as remote devices. Servicing and maintaining such equipment has always been a difficult task that will only become more challenging and complex in the future.
In the past, a specialized and very skilled and experienced technician was needed that understood the troubleshooting procedures and operation of a variety of appliances as well as the usefulness of different troubleshooting equipment such a volt meters, amp meters, pressure gauges and similar test equipment. This approach to maintenance and repair relies almost exclusively on the skill of the technician and is becoming more difficult as appliances are equipped with more intelligence.
Individual, specialized diagnostic devices for each piece of equipment or appliance is one possible maintenance solution. However, the costs of so many, and so specialized, diagnostic devices make such a solution too expensive and unattractive for most service personnel and companies. The variety of manufacturers and different appliances available would preclude most service personnel from being trained for and repairing or maintaining more than just a few lines of equipment.
A more general diagnostic device that can execute respective customized software for a variety of equipment or appliances would avoid some of the above-identified problems. However, there would still be a tremendous cost in developing and coding the numerous customized software applications for each appliance. Training for service personnel on each customized software application, ensuring software compatibility, and providing revisions that are forward and backward compatible are all additional problems that would need to be addressed and overcome to make such a diagnostic platform tenable.
Accordingly, there is a need for a diagnostic system that can be used by service personnel to diagnose, repair and maintain equipment and appliances that can be used with a variety of models and manufacturers of equipment, that is familiar to diagnostic manual used by many technicians, and that uses software that can be easily and quickly developed.